Grace Ricafranca can still see the slab of concrete under the tin roof, as she remembered a trip to the Philippines, to see her extended family when she was in middle school.

The details are vivid: the open air; the open-toed shoes hanging off the feet of locals running full court five-on-fives, under a metal canopy held up by rapidly aging homemade pillars.

“Everybody that was there was wearing flip-flops,” Ricafranca, an assistant coach for the Point Loma Nazarene University women’s basketball team, said. “They are just running fives back and forth in slippers and they’ve been playing for hours.”

A first-generation American, for Ricafranca, basketball is a bridge between cultures.

“It was a different experience to see the love of the game on that level,” she said. “The Philippines being in the state that it is, you don’t always have access to resources and places. Just to see the pure heart for the game and showing up to the court and seeing [people] falling in love with the ball going through the hoop was an experience for me.”

Ricafranca’s own journey into the sport started with her father, Dario.

“My dad was the biggest influence in my life,” she said. “He would record every Lakers game on VHS. I loved watching the games and becoming a fanatic. I have two older brothers; I was just trying to jump in with them. I loved what it felt like to see the ball go through the hoop and the competition.”

A 2008 graduate of Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights, Ricafranca was named an All-League player as a guard.

She then attended Biola University, graduating in 2013.

In 2013, Ricafranca began the arduous climb up the coaching ladder.

“The game of basketball and mentoring young women are two of my greatest passions in life,” she said.

After a season as the head coach of the Whitter High School girls’ varsity, followed by five as an assistant at Biola, and two with Pepperdine, Ricafranca now heads into her second season on the PLNU staff, where she works in guard development, scouting, and recruiting.

“It is a very demanding lifestyle choice,” Ricafranca said. “It’s definitely not for the faint of heart. You have to really have a strong why? The hours get long – there are some travel days you are gone 13-14 days at a time. All of July is recruiting event after recruiting event. For me, it’s understanding it’s not about those things, but the people you get to meet in the process; the impact you get to have on your program, and the lives you get to be part of and shape and mold – when that becomes your why and you love doing that, all the other things fall into place and become worth it.”

This July, Ricafranca’s “why” became clearer, when she was given the opportunity to work on the coaching staff of the under 16, Filipino women’s national team at the FIBA U16 Women’s Asian Championship. The tournament took place in Amman, Jordan, with eight teams across Asia participating.

“For me, it was an honor and a dream that I didn’t even know I had,” Ricafranca said.

Because of the situation with COVID in the Philippines, the makeup of the team largely reflected Ricafranca’s own upbringing. Nine players were Filipino American or Canadian with only three players local to the Philippines.

“Any time I can help these young ‘Fil-Ams’ be connected with their heritage and culture, especially through basketball is a huge passion for me,” Ricafranca said.

Ricafranca served as the team’s offensive coordinator, helping create a dribble-drive motion offense. Additionally, she worked individually with the point guards and wing players.

After going 11 years without qualifying for the U16 Women’s Asian Championship, Ricafranca and the Philippines had a strong tournament finishing with a bronze medal.

“When we took our loss to Samoa in the semi-finals, the locker room was full of tears, myself included,” she said. “Feeling like maybe we let the country down a little bit was a weighty moment. But it was empowering to know we can lift each other up and come back.”

The tournament also served as a catharsis for Ricafranca in dealing with her own grief over the unexpected loss of her father to a heart attack, while he was on vacation in the Philippines in 2018.

“I think it was kind of a divine situation,” Ricafranca said. “It was unique because all of his family was there and they could celebrate his life. The Philippines was his home and he had plans to retire there one day. I am a firm believer that all things happen for a reason and God is in control of that.”

As Ricafranca stood alongside her team and the national anthem – “Lupan Hinirang” – played before each game, thoughts of her father swirled around her head.

“It was very emotional,” she said. “I was carrying his spirit with me and I know this is something that would have meant the world to him. This was the biggest way I could honor him.”

The tournament gave Ricafranca a lesson in what she called “the true spirit of the game.” Something that she plans to bring back to PLNU as the season quickly approaches.

“The most amazing thing is to see how basketball unites people,” she said. “I know that sounds cheesy but it’s just different when you wear your nation across your chest. The amount of honor and pride, but also the pressure that comes with that. It doesn’t matter where you are from or what your story is, but we all came together to compete and work hard.”